Trump Army nominee under fire for newly uncovered transgender comments

Mark Green is facing opposition from transgender and gay advocacy groups, and a Muslim rights group that has charged him with Islamophobia. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

A third group backing transgender rights has come out against Mark Green, President Trump's pick to be secretary of the Army, which could further complicate his Senate confirmation.

GLAAD, a media monitoring group, claimed the Tennessee state senator said during a radio interview last year that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice could traumatize women. The group advocates for transgender as well as gay, lesbian and bisexual rights.

Green is also facing opposition from two other transgender and gay advocacy groups, and a Muslim rights group that has charged him with Islamophobia.

"The Trump administration must have been desperate to fill this post because Mark Green's anti-LGBTQ remarks should disqualify anyone seeking to be in charge of the United States Army, which includes many out and proud soldiers," Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of GLAAD, said in a statement.

Green, a conservative Christian and son of a southern Baptist pastor, is in hot water with liberal groups due to various interviews he has done over the past five years as a state senator, in which he has talked about his faith and transgender bathroom rights.

In newly unearthed audio from a radio interview last year, Green said the Obama administration's effort to expand the rights of transgender people to use the public bathroom could lead to sex assaults.

"There are 300,000 rapes in the United States every year, 300,000 women who are sexually assaulted by predators, and we know this, it is documented, it's factual," Green said. "To think that some young guy isn't going to take advantage of the system where we're going to allow guys to go into the women's bathroom, to think that that's not going to happen is just ridiculous."

The political left is waging a war on women by forcing them to be exposed to predators who would take advantage of new transgender rights, he said.

"There are millions of women who potentially could be suffering the [post-traumatic stress disorder] of having been raped and they're sitting in a bathroom and they see a guy come walking in," Green said. "How incredibly insensitive is that of the political left to think that this should just be OK."

Quoting the Bible, the Tennessee businessman followed up the comments by saying the government exists to honor and reward citizens who do good and punish those who do wrong.

"That means, as a state senator, my responsibility very clearly in Romans 13 is to create an environment where people who do right are rewarded and people who do wrong are crushed, evil is crushed," he said. "So, I'm going to protect women in their bathrooms and I'm going to protect our state against potential infiltration of Syrian ISIS people through a refugee program. Whoever wants to stand up and take me on on that, I'm ready to fight," Green said.